“It wasn’t her fault”

“It wasn’t her fault”

“…at the end of the performance, she came to me and asked me to forgive her, that her behaviour was due to the difficult situation my father had left us in…” Sharon, 13 years old.

From a street child, Sharon became a performer, with “My Story” created by Kaami Arts Organization basing on former street children stories from “Abadacogora-Intwali rehabilitation center”. She found herself touring with her fellows in 10 communities. One of them is the cell, where her mother lives in.

Sharon, 13 years old, is among the 25 former street children trained by kaami arts in theatre, dance and drumming. Sharon’s father abandoned the family when She was 3. She later found herself torn between her both parents side, one day being sent to the father who will send her to her mother’s. Sharon decided then to join the street due to what she calls “not having a home anymore”.

She spent there 1 year before being recruited by “Abadacogora-Intwali center” to pass through a rehabilitation process before being reunited with her parent and sent back to school. That is where she will encounter arts through the artist provided by kaami arts as one of the way of healing and addressing the street children phenomenon.

As a result of the artistic training, Sharon states that she is now more confident. She also stresses the positive impact that being together with her fellows has had on her sociability: “ In the beginning, I used to isolate myself; I was sad, I hated other children because I thought they were happier than me, that no one passed through the same hard life I had, but little by little I realised that we all had our own stories and all were not easy to carry, and kaami taught us that we were all the same , no one was bigger than the other . That made me open up to others, now we love each other more than before”.

Her favourite part is the performances in the communities, because as she says “she is able to show the negative impact of street life on a child”.

While playing in my mum’s cell, she had come to the community awareness event. After the show Sharon’s mum approached her and asked Sharon to forgive her for she did not know how her behaviour could impact her life.